Professor Richard Morris and Professor Tim Bliss, two of the three British scientists who have been awarded the Brain Prize.
Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA

Three British scientists have scooped the largest prize for neuroscience in the world, sharing a €1 million award for their work on memory.

In an announcement from the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation in Denmark on Tuesday, it was revealed that Professors Tim Bliss, Graham Collingridge and Richard Morris will share the prize. The trio have won the award, dubbed the Brain Prize, for their seminal work on understanding what happens in the brain when we make, and lose, memories. While British researchers have shared the prize in previous years, this is the first time an all British line-up has won the award.

How the brain navigates: science Nobel prize special – podcast

Read more

Speaking from Ottawa, Canada at press briefing ahead of the announcement, Collingridge - professor of neuroscience in anatomy at the University of Bristol and chair of the department of physiology at the University of Toronto - said he was “still in a state of shock” at the win.

The trio’s work revolves around understanding the neural basis of memory. “Understanding memory is one of the grand challenges of neuroscience,” said Morris, professor of neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh. “I think we all recognise that memory is absolutely fundamental to so many aspects of our daily life,” he said. “So many aspects of family life would just be completely unthinkable if we were frozen in a particular moment of time, unable to look back and unable to look forward.” What’s more, he added, “disorders of memory are greatly feared.”

More formally known as the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize, the annual award was first presented five years ago to celebrate achievements in neuroscience and to “enhance the interaction between Danish and European brain research.” The award ceremony will take place in Copenhagen on 1 July, where the prize will be presented by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. The scientists say they have not yet decided exactly what to spend their winnings on.

The work for which the scientists have been recognised has long roots. “It’s been accepted really since the turn of the 20th century, since the time of the Spanish neuroscientist Ramón y Cajal, that really the only place where memories can be stored is at synapses, the junctions between nerve cells” said Bliss, visiting worker at the Francis Crick Institute at Mill Hill, London. It was during his work in the early 1970s on the brain region known as the hippocampus that Bliss first demonstrated the so-called Hebbian principle, according to which, he explains,“if nerve cell A is connected to nerve cell B, and A takes part in firing B then the synapse, the connection between A and B, will be strengthened.” This mechanism by which synapses are strengthened underpins the formation of memories and is now known as Long Term Potentiation, or LTP.

Synaesthesia could help us understand how the brain processes language | Cathleen O'Grady

Read more

Building on this revelation, Collingridge began to probe the molecular mechanisms behind the phenomenon of LTP, work which led to the discovery of the key role of a protein known as the NMDA receptor. It was a finding Morris was to expand upon, developing a series of experiments that showed specific drugs could be used to target NMDA receptors, preventing rodents from learning while leaving intact existing connections between neurons.

Crucially, said Collingridge, revealing the mechanisms behind memory has provided scientists with new understanding of a host of conditions from autism to schizophrenia. “What we now know, and this is the work of many groups, is that when the NMDA receptor is working properly it is important for learning and memory, but when things go wrong then it is the cause of major neurological and psychiatric conditions,” he said. Indeed, Morris believes that the research could benefit those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease when, it is believed, these synaptic mechanisms are targeted. “If we can zero in on the very earliest stages - and that is not going to be easy to do - then it may be possible to develop new drugs that could help people at that stage, give them more independent living, give their families and carer more time to deal with the situation before things get very bad.”

Among the areas the scientists are now pursuing is understanding the process of forgetting. “There has to be some kind of selective process of what you keep and what you don’t keep and I have become very interested in that,” said Morris.

The possibility to manipulate memories to create false recollections could also on the horizon, the scientists claim. “In theory that is possible,” said Bliss. “In practice you can’t do it now - but I am not saying that that could never happen.” Wiping memories is also a future possibility. “Whilst many memories are good, there are also memories which are bad,” said Collingridge. “There is very good evidence now that we can start to erase memories pharmacologically by using drugs, and this may be useful, eventually, for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorders and potentially also chronic pain.”